lbgsloan

Reply to Scout spam -- Is it time to NERF scouts against LRMs? It's getting ridiculous. in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

I'm not seeing how a tier 0 rush is bad for the game. It is, and should be, viable in most RTS' to spam a lot of early units and attack. Early on you will have no choice but to make basic units yourself, but later on you have more options and the tier 0 units become obsolete in combat. LRM spam was bad for the game because there was no counter higher up in the tech tree. Illums + a few flak beat everything except more Illums. The root of this problem i

Reply to Upgrade for gaming in PC Gaming Sins Forums

NVIDIA really hasn't been on the ball lately, which is probably why they've been investing heavily in bribing AAA game developers to optimize their games for NVIDIA cards instead. Your old 8800 was a fantastic value for money, but they haven't come close to that value for money since. Can't really add anything more here, the 5770 is indeed the best value for money right now. The 5850 is great for an extra $100 or so, but $100 isn't exactly pocket change for some people.

Reply to Vista is driving me round the bend... in Personal Computing Sins Forums

I had some serious issues with Vista SP1 at startup. It would take 2-3 tries to boot sometimes, but would run fine once the Vista logo came up. After SP2, I've had no issues at all with Vista. I'm eventually getting a free copy of Win7 from work, but may just wait for Win7 SP1 before I upgrade anyway. None of the new features I've heard of sound like they're worth a reformat at the moment.

Reply to Will Demigod become a ghost-town? in Everything Else Sins Forums

I think the main problem with Demigod is that Heroes of Newerth stole a LOT of the online players (helped by the fact that it's still in free beta). While I don't like this style of game, from what I see on various forums is that Demigod just doesn't have the sheer variety of HoN to hold people's interest. A lot of people tried it, scoffed at the puny roster of eight heroes, and moved on. I think a lot of the single player only users bought Demigod thinking it was something

Reply to Torchlight not available on Impulse makes me a sad panda in PC Gaming Sins Forums

Well worth the $20. I tried Titan Quest a while back, and it for some reason it just didn't do it for me like this does. It's simple, it's fun, it works, and Blizzard is probably banging their heads on the table for not getting Diablo 3 out faster after seeing the incredible demand for this game. Also, check the modding sites for this game. There's a semi-official 'respec potion' mod, and more importantly a semi-official BEES summon spell mod. Th

Reply to Dragon Age DLC "while supplies last" in PC Gaming Sins Forums

I have to admit, the 'while supplies last' on a virtual product made me do a double take. You can run out of copies of a DLC? Really EA? Sigh.

Reply to Good Place to Find AGP graphics cards? in Personal Computing Sins Forums

Just be aware that good AGP cards will cost you far more than an equivalet PCI-E card. You can find stuff that was mid-range years ago (like the 7800 and 3650 mentioned) for fair prices, but anything more powerful than that will be difficult to find at a sane price. If you really want to play modern games at the highest settings, it may just be time to consider a new computer/major upgrade. It's not worth paying 50% more for a video card just to get a few more months out of

Reply to Purchase 32 or 64 windows 7 in Personal Computing Sins Forums

I thought Win7 discs came with both versions? You should be able format and try again if the 64-bit version gives you issues. 64-bit is preferable, even without 4GB of RAM. 32-bit programs run fine, while software optimized for 64-bit will run quite a bit better. Only ancient drivers with 16-bit install packages tend to cause issues. Vista 64-bit has been out long enough now that any serious hardware company will have 64-bit drivers for any supported product by n

Reply to Defeating piracy the Tropico way. in PC Gaming Sins Forums

Isn't this rewarding the pirates though? If this is really how it works, why wouldn't everyone just download it and buy the key at a discount?

Reply to This is what is wrong with gaming, and buying games, today. in PC Gaming Sins Forums

It's more the principle of the thing that cheeses people off. It's like releasing an expansion for the game the same day the core game released. It looks like it should have been part of the main game, but they decided to be bastards about it. In essence, yes, it would have been a good move to move the day 1 DLC back a couple months. At least then it wouldn't feel like you're being milked for more money already.

Reply to 10 quick thoughts on digital distribution and sales in PC Gaming Sins Forums

[quote who="bonscott" reply="26" id="2413813"]If a game is available on Impulse I will buy it there. Main reason is that I don't want to deal with having the CD in the drive when playing a game but also because I'm coming around more to the digital distribution model. This has been hard for me since I like to "collect" the game boxes but I'll get over it. I like how Stardock makes the boxes version available of their games for a few bucks more, I did that with Ele

Reply to Borderlands in PC Gaming Sins Forums

I heard they shot themselves in the foot with the PC version. No cd-key checking to play online, and character files are stored locally. Basically pirates and cheaters everywhere. I guess it would be fine with friends who you know are going to play fair, but I can't see playing public games going very well.

Reply to Does a "fear" of experienced (or pro) players keep you from playing Sins online? in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Lots of people made accounts, but quickly gave up. The problem was they lost a LOT of early online players to ICO issues/Sins crashes. Once they fixed it, they really should have promoted ICO to try and build the community back up. They didn't, and a lot of players stayed away for good. And of course, the problem just snowballs from there. I've tried at least 4-5 times to find a game on ICO, and every time I wait around 15 mins, see nothing, and go play someth

Reply to This is what is wrong with gaming, and buying games, today. in PC Gaming Sins Forums

find it interesting that no one seems to have noticed the words in the OP's chart that's in italics (hint: it's the only word that appears in italics in the whole image.) Give up? That word is new , as in you get the content listed as free if you buy a brand new unused copy of the game, or fork over extra money if you buy a used copy. What this means is that everything on that list that says "Buy any new copy" to get means you are not act

Reply to RTS recommendations needed in PC Gaming Sins Forums

I'd avoid Company of Heroes at the moment. Relic royally screwed up on the latest expansion; balance is FUBAR and the game is really stale at all levels of play due to certain units/strategies dominating. If you do get it, don't get Tales of Valor, get the Gold Pack instead. While standalone and offering full multiplayer access, Tales of Valor doesn't have a real campaign. The original and first expansion did, and are actually pretty well done as campaigns go.

Reply to Modern Warfare 2 PC Online is Peer to Peer in PC Gaming Sins Forums

[quote]ment. I'm not saying we should all go out and buy the game to prevent this from happening. I'm just trying to describe the blinders companies have toward legitimate problems. They won't understand why PC sales were softer than expected.[/quote] Actually, people have been bombing their boards desperately trying to get them to change before release. Their response was to close their ears and go 'LALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER ALL THE MONEY WE WILL MAKE ANYWAYS'. Th

Reply to Does a "fear" of experienced (or pro) players keep you from playing Sins online? in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

I tend to agree with Protoplazm. It's not pros that scare people off, it's the smurfs and elitists. If I lose to someone who's 450-50, then I don't care too much. I knew what I was getting into, and expected as much. If I lose to a smurf who's 3-0 but is actually 450-50 when it pisses me off. That's is simpl

Reply to This is what is wrong with gaming, and buying games, today. in PC Gaming Sins Forums

Possibly the most ridiculous video game marketing scheme I've ever seen. Yes, worse than Daikatana's. Whatever happened to buying the game and *gasp* getting the entire game? DLC on release is the cancer killed gaming. I'd say I hope nobody is dumb enough to buy it to send a message to developers and publishers, but unfortunately I know better. Expect this to get worse and worse. On a different note, Gamestop really lucked out on the 'bonus item

Reply to Brad’s thoughts for Games for Windows Live in PC Gaming Sins Forums

I actually have to thank GFWL. I refused to buy Dawn of War 2 because of the 'double DRM' it made you go through to play. This turned out to be a good thing as the general concensus is that DOW2 wasn't a very good game. I will never understand why THQ thought requiring Steam AND GFWL to play online was a good idea. That said, I don't mind GWFL TOO much as I can still play single player game offline. I only need to connect for multiplayer, which is no different

Reply to 10 quick thoughts on digital distribution and sales in PC Gaming Sins Forums

I've bought 3 games digitally now, and generally I don't miss the stores much. Being in Canada it's much cheaper for me (games are usually a flat $10 less in the US, and I don't have to pay tax or shipping. Exchange rate ~ tax rate these days, so it's usually about $12-15 less than in-store in most cases). However there are a couple things that couple be improved with the system: -Option to keep the installation files so I can back it up to a DVD or something.

Reply to Single star pirates in the way in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

If you're Advent, those 'Starfish' (forget what they're called) anti-building ships murder the pirate's turret farm since they fire at like 5 at once.

Reply to Sins v1.181 and Entrenchment v1.041 Hotfix Change Log in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Nice AI changes. Was pretty stupid when Mass Disorintation fired on the first ship in range, mass disorintating...one ship.

Reply to Lag on multiplayer - Direct IP in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Have the exact same issue. My friend has an old machine with 3.0 celeron and 1 GB of RAM, and the same thing happens. Game 'pauses' every few seconds for the person with the newer system (me). The second he disconnects it runs perfectly on my side. I think it's just a simple performance issue, and there's nothing you can do about it short of upgrading the slower system. I'd strongly suggest bumping the ram up to 2GB on the slower system.

Reply to Balance starbases and fix this game ASAP in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Huh? Starbases overpowered? Unupgraded ones go down easily enough. If it's fully upgraded, tank it with a combination of cap ships, heavy cruisers, and repair ships while the long range attack ships kill it. Don't skimp on that last part. You want at least 8-10 if it's a fully upgraded starbase. For Visari, you'll want a lot of bombers instead. If they maxed fighters on the Advent base, that means they can't have max weapon and defence upgrades on i

Reply to Resident Evil 5 Available on Impulse in PC Gaming Sins Forums

Just a heads up for people getting the game: Capcom apparently didn't test DX10 mode very well and it causes major problems for ATI card users (black cutscenes, poor performance in certain areas). Running it DX9 mode elimates these problems with no drop in quality. That's right, none; Capcom said themselves they used no DX10 enhanced features. It's there soley for those silly NVIDIA 3D glasses. So unless you're using said glasses, do NOT bother running it in DX10 mode.